Kin moves ball mill 60km to Leonora gold project site

The owners of a new gold mine near Leonora say it remains on schedule to open this year, as construction of the mine’s 1.5 million-tonne-a-year processing plant begins to take shape.

Kin Mining recently transported a 150-tonne, 2.5MW, ball mill 60km, or two hours, from Murrin Murrin to its Cardinia hub, where it will process gold for its 55,000oz a year Leonora Gold Project. The second-hand ball mill will cost $900,000 to refurbish and be added to the Lawlers processing plant, to be delivered in the coming months from Gold Fields’ operations near Leinster, 130km away.

Kin Mining has been in the news in recent weeks because of a public board dispute which saw former managing director Don Harper and technical director David Sproule leave the company.

But interim managing director Trevor Dixon said it remained on schedule to pour first gold in December this year, with between 20 and 25 people currently working on site at Leonora and Lawlers as construction progresses.

Mr Dixon said confidence in the northern Goldfields’ potential as a gold mining hub was on the up, with Dacian’s 200,000ozpa Mt Morgans project and the 270,000ozpa Gruyere Joint Venture also planning to enter production over the next 12 months.

“It is home to a number of cornerstone assets for significant tier-one gold miners with well-established and productive mines such as Gwalia, Agnew, Granny Smith, Garden Well and Sunrise Dam,” he said.

“In the past 18 months, we have also seen a resurgence and new focus on the area as new players move into the region such as Dacian, Genesis, Red 5, Saracen and IGO seeking to develop more long-life cornerstone mines.”